Monthly Archive:: July 2009

Several months ago I was fortunate to score a phone interview with Jethro Tull‘s legendary leader/founder, Ian Anderson. Our talk came at the tail-end of long day for the UK-based flautist/vocalist, but he graciously spoke with me for more than an hour. Our wide-ranging conversation covered the creative process, the ups and down of the

This is big. UK progressive rock quartet Porcupine Tree will release their latest album — a 2CD set called The Incident on September 15. A sampler from the album is available on the group’s myspace page. For melodic, intelligent rock in 2009, you can’t do better than Porcupine Tree. (Read my 2007 interview with PT’s

As mentioned previously, I’m something of a Zappa fanatic. I was lucky enough to see the man onstage twice in the 80s; his peculiar hybrid of obscenely-complicated art/jazz/rock/whatever crossed with a withering sense of irony and a jaundiced eye toward poseurs of all stripes rendered his music tailor-made for a proto-postmodern twentysomething mulleted me. Or

Second to take the stage was Bigelf. Like Scale the Summit, these guys were unknown to me. I was totally unfamiliar with their music, so I did a quick bit of reading about them ahead of time. I learned that one of their trademarks is use of vintage instruments. So with that, I was delighted

First up was Scale the Summit. This four-piece (two guitars trading leads, plus bass and drums) trades in the modern instro-metal-prog genre. A really young lot (not Hanson “Mm-bop” young, not “Michael Jackson when he was human” young, but young nonetheless) turned out a bruising set. For me, the songs ran together and didn’t offer

So awhile back I bought a ticket to the local date of the Progressive Nation tour. My buddy and band mate Jeff talked me into it. On one level, I didn’t need much convincing: near the top of the bill was Zappa Plays Zappa; I’d seen ZPZ a couple years earlier and was wowed by

I just spoke with Marshall Crenshaw. Our interview was nearly two years to the day after our first meeting, an in-person conversation in the lobby of Asheville NC’s Grey Eagle. That 2007 interview is here. I’ll be publishing the latest feature the first week in August. Keep an eye out for it. Jaggedland is Crenshaw’s

My interview with / feature on Holsapple and Stamey was published in the July 8 issue of Mountain Xpress. Now that the publisher’s two-week embargo has passed, here’s a link to a much more in-depth version of that piece, on my own site.

Today I interviewed Gustav Estjes, leader of Swedish modern-psych group Dungen. I was turned onto these guys a few years back by my friend (and former bandmate in the Echoes of Tyme) Dave Vandergrift; I’ll always be grateful to DV for that one. Anyway, the feature will run in the August 12 issue of Mountain

I’ve written extensively about the travails of Moby Grape, the best 60s group most people have never heard. Some of my words on the subject are yet to be published, and when they are, it will be without byline. But if you don’t know their music, it’s worth getting to know. And then, if you

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